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Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

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Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#461

Post by michaelt »

mseebach wrote: post #288
bogomipz wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Starting their own label is exactly what they need to do to remain competitive. It's exactly what Netflix ended up doing and I think it's turning out pretty well for them." This seems to be a common refrain that Spotify can just "pull a Netflix." And this is very unlikely. Firstly no matter how much opriginal content they could create, if they don't have back catalog it's going to be a total non-starter for the mai…

Why the assumption that "to pull a Netflix", they will have to get rid of the back catalogue? Netflix has plenty of third-party content. I would assume that Spotify's music licences are highly variable cost, ie almost entirely pay-per-stream. All they need to do is to get people to stream less licenced content and more own-produced.

  Netflix has plenty of third-party content.
I agree they have plenty in the sense that they have many more hours of it than I have time to watch.

However, in my experience in the UK, if you pick a well known film at random and look it up on Netflix, there's only about a 5% chance they'll have it.

Not the sort of library that will have users throwing away their personal collections.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#462

Post by bootlooped »

CodeMage wrote: post #327
oarsinsync wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s already happening, and it’s less of a problem than I thought it would be. Some of my playlists are 200+ tracks. A few songs go missing from time to time. I can never remember which tracks have gone, I just know something’s missing as the flow from song to song is off. It’s extremely irritating, but not enough to make me go elsewhere as I can’t see any other service not having the same problem.

Yeah, it's already happening, that's why I brought it up. Right now it's not a huge problem, because it doesn't happen too often or on a large scale. Like you said, it's usually a couple of songs in a larger playlist. Now, imagine the scenario comparable to what @bogomipz said above: "no Beatles, Pink Floyd, No Motown, No AC/DC". I'm betting all of us would be a lot more frustrated and irritated than we are right now…

I don't think they would switch to another service, because another service is likely to suffer from the same problems of rotating availability. The only service I know of that doesn't suffer from that is piracy, which I don't think people will go back to on any significant scale.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#463

Post by therealdrag0 »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #424
mancerayder wrote: post #332

Maybe they have enough capital now to adjust the Discover Weekly algorithm, which provides a weekly recipe of 30 songs that have no basis in what I listened to or have in my playlists. I do get to discover Millennial sleepily-singing voices to a disco beat and a 'laid back' riff that promises to stay in the background (thanks to a faux garagey sound). Is that what Indy means? For pre-selected music that I listen to f…

And I can only say that Discover Weekly and the Daily Mixes are absolutely spot-on for me.

It works great for me when I'm not experimenting. But if I listen to an album of a genre I don't normally listen to my next weeks playlist gets pretty spoiled.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#464

Post by styfle »

simias wrote: post #191
_zachs wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starting their own label is exactly what they need to do to remain competitive. It's exactly what Netflix ended up doing and I think it's turning out pretty well for them. I wouldn't be surprised if Spotify tried poaching higher-level strategy people from Netflix.

I'm not convinced. You don't consume music the way you consume TV shows and movies, it's often a more "passive" activity where you start a playlist in the background while you do other things. You can do that with movie/TV shows of course but a movie will last you ~two hours while a TV show can literally last you days or weeks at a time without input if you really like having The Office in the background while you do…

One thing that stands out to me that differentiates Netflix vs Spotify is what happens when a license expires and content gets removed.

With Netflix, my reaction depends on if I watched the content before it was removed.

With Spotify, it's almost always rage.

Why? I often listen to music more than once but I often don't watch movies more than once.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#465

Post by martin_bech »

_zachs wrote: post #168
synaesthesisx wrote: post #27

I do love Spotify as a product, however I don't think it will scale the same way Netflix does. Spotify is at the mercy of major record labels, and as their books become more transparent the record labels will squeeze every dollar they can for licensing. That is, unless they find a way to upend the record industry entirely. Spotify has a unique position with their amazing discovery/recommendations engine- they could p…

Starting their own label is exactly what they need to do to remain competitive. It's exactly what Netflix ended up doing and I think it's turning out pretty well for them. I wouldn't be surprised if Spotify tried poaching higher-level strategy people from Netflix.

Isnt that actually in the same vein as what Tidal did/is doing? They even had exclusives, and I dont really think, its working out for them. Worth remembering, that most artist dont make real money on streaming, they make money playing live, merch etc.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#466

Post by abalone »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #423
abalone wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what’s your point? Apple Music is still overtaking Spotify this year. And just like iTunes, they don’t need to make much money on it.

Only in the US, Spotify is huge in Europe and other parts of the world, where Apple Music is basically unknown.

Spotify is actually small in the world. All music service subscribers combined are a mere ~110 million.

Eddy Cue recent pegged the market opportunity at 2 billion.[1]

And Apple Music ramping the fastest.[2]

[1] https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-music-hits-38-million-subscr...

[2] https://twitter.com/asymco/status/973568200616050688?ref_src...

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#467

Post by Skunkleton »

mbesto wrote: post #272
Skunkleton wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something that has been bothering me. Doesn't it seem like stock prices are getting out of whack?

There aren't enough IPOs and companies to invest into, so the public markets are chasing anything they can get their hands on. Do these companies have value? Absolutely. Is the demand arbitrarily high because there's supply? Absolutely.

Yeah, that makes sense I suppose. I just don't see the growth path for Spotify. Yeah, they have an excellent music service, but whats next?

Edit: and I as about growth, because I don't see how Spotify is currently worth 30B.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#468

Post by dheelus »

komali2 wrote: post #47

I'm not quite clear on why people are choosing spotify over google play music - to me the google option is superior in UI and offerings (including ad-free youtube). Am I missing something? Is it just one runs better on iPhones or is more hip (like why people choose snapchat over instagram or something)?

Google Music has superior UI? SMH.

In any case, I switched to GPMAA when it was launched and had the $7.99 a month rate locked in.

Then, GPMAA started adding tracks to my playlist, etc. at random. No, Google, I don't want your suggestions to be auto-added to my collection. I simply want to listen to what I want to listen.

I want to get away from Spotify but there are no better options. Amazon Music seemed promising for a bit but their catalog isn't as comprehensive and their app is just wonky. E.g.: the app won't sync / display song time when streaming over Bluetooth to my car audio. Deal breaker for me.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#469

Post by bootlooped »

jehlakj wrote: post #330
CodeMage wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's already happening, that's why I brought it up. Right now it's not a huge problem, because it doesn't happen too often or on a large scale. Like you said, it's usually a couple of songs in a larger playlist. Now, imagine the scenario comparable to what @bogomipz said above: "no Beatles, Pink Floyd, No Motown, No AC/DC". I'm betting all of us would be a lot more frustrated and irritated than we are right now…

I’m curious. Do a lot of people actually use a single music streaming platform? As an avid music lover, I get my new doses from various services. Spotify is the only one that I pay for. I mainly use it to discover the latest mainstream stuff from genres I don’t typically listen to. But the Beatles? Come on, why isn’t that saved in your hard drive somewhere?

I don't think most people are avid music lovers, and many people probably don't even use a computer for music at all, just their smartphone.

Re: Spotify opens on NYSE, valuing company at almost $30B

#470

Post by tomc1985 »

rorykoehler wrote: post #430
tomc1985 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify's catalog is so spotty that it is borderline useless for me. Most small indie labels still do not publish to Spotify If you are the kind of person that will sometimes strongly desire to listen to only one song/style/artist, and that desire is so strong that nothing else satisfies it, then Spotify not having your track can be a big deal. If I can't build a decent playlist because Spotify's lack of coverage, th…

I don't know what music you listen to but i have a pretty broad and eclectic taste and still find Spotify to be amazing for discovery.

I have never been happy with Spotify/Pandora as discovery system. Nothing beats an hourlong mp3+tracklist with real DJs pushing real buttons :/
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